Root-Beer Barbecue


This is something I've heard of online and have been wanting to try: take some beef or pork (in this case, a piece of bottom round roast and some boneless pork chops that needed to be used), put it in a crock-pot. Cover the meat with root beer and cook all day. Drain the meat and shred, then add a barbecue sauce (homemade or your favorite bottled), heat through.

This was good, but I've gotta say it didn't taste that much different than other barbecues I've made in the crock pot. The root beet did a good job of tenderizing the meat, but you couldn't really taste it in the finished product. But still a good meal.

Pork Stir-Fry

I found a neat little table in Kraft's Food and Family magazine that lists ways you can make stir-fry. I chose this combination of boneless pork chops, fried in a sauce mixture of sesame oil, soy sauce, Italian salad dressing, and sesame seeds (which I did not have). The article makes suggestions for vegetables to pair with the meat (in this case, sprouts and carrots), but I used a frozen stir-fry veggie mix. Layered over brown rice, this was a good way to enjoy pork chops, which I'm not usually a fan of. I like the idea of having an entire meal in one bowl. And I felt so sophisticated eating with my pretty chopsticks! The Food and Family table is a great tool to print out and have on hand. I think I am going to get some sesame seeds to try with this recipe next time.

When did this happen?!?

I was in line at the grocery store yesterday, waiting for the lady in front of me to quit with the attitude, when I took a look at the contents in my cart.

hmmm......let's see .......organic, hormone-free milk ......organic rice .......cage-free eggs ..........eco-safe, chlorine and phosphate free dishwasher detergent .......natural tortilla chips .........and cloth bags to carry home my purchases.

WHOA! When did that happen?!? My husband took one look at my bounty sitting on the kitchen counter and officially declared me a "tree hugger." I don't think I've quite gotten there yet, but since I've started blogging, I've been introduced to the lifestyles of people who live differently from me. It all started when I stumbled across the what I believe is now-defunct blog called Vegan Lunch Box, which was written by a mother who packed vegan lunches for her first grader. She put a lot of time into it, and the lunches were always adorable. I realized that while it is a challenge, you CAN eat a healthy vegan diet and get plenty of protein, etc. It's not just salads! From there I moved on to more radical vegan blogs - ones whose doctrine I would never agree with, but nonetheless I enjoyed seeing how someone lives differently than me. I found a blog written by a lady who runs a small beef farm, and another who runs her own soap-making business. Then there's the guy who is completely self-sufficient, living hours away from civilization, tending to his garden made up entirely of plants that are native to the area - oh, to spend a day with THAT guy!

I started to think about how my food choices affect not only me, but me nation and the world as well. I buy organic milk because I like to support the small farms that produce it, plus the growth hormones regular cows are given scare me - I see too many fifth grade girls who look a lot different than when I was that age! I buy cage-free eggs because I would never think it's okay to keep a dog or a cat in a shoe-boxed size cage for it's entire life - why would it be okay for a chicken? Plus, both of these foods taste a LOT better than their mass-produced counterparts. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What I really wanted to do was thank YOU, the blogging world, for exposing me to the way other people eat! I am a better cook and a better person because of it!

In honor of my 200th post: 20 food facts about me:

1. I started cooking as a preschooler

2. We have a picture of me standing on a chair in my diaper, helping my mom stir something.

3. If you want a good laugh and if you ask very nicely, she’ll probably post it on her blog.

4. I believe that there are very few things in life that cannot be improved with garlic.

5. For me, the hardest part of cooking is following through to the “cleaning up” stage.

6. I have not yet been able to bring myself to try sashimi.

7. I do not like the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.

8. I try really hard to like raw tomatoes.

9. My mother, grandmother and I all agree that if we had to live the rest of our lives on two things, it would be fruit and cheese.

10. One of the greatest joys of my life is to have other people enjoy my food.

11. I think that iceberg lettuce is a waste of time.

12. I am very picky about sweet things.

13. I can be dangerous around those sweets I like.

14. It would be weird for me to cook without my dog underfoot.

15. I need breakfast to function.

16. I love to try foods from different cultures (exceptions being lots of Asian “delicacies” – i.e., dog, cat, sashimi…)

17. My husband taught me that there is indeed a difference between the taste of Coke and Pepsi.

18. My favorite drink is fresh-squeezed orange juice.

19. I credit myself with expanding my husband’s palate in a major way.

20. The blog world has been one of the best things for me to expand my cooking horizons. Here’s to another 200 posts!

Stromboli

We had another Big Green Egg first this week: Stromboli! The dough came from the pizza place across that recently opened near our house, but I didn't feel like doing a pizza. This Stromboli has provolone cheese, pan sausage, and pepperoni in it, served with a side of marinara.



Nothing fancy, but you can't tell me that doesn't look good! The dough came out crusty, with the Egg lending a slightly smoky flavor.

A very simple, satisfying meal!

Rainbow Trout in Maple-Dill Brine

In my ongoing quest to try to expand our fish palate, I got some Rainbow Trout from Publix yesterday. Once I got home, I decided to try this brine, even though it called for 8-10 hours of brining in the fridge, and I only had about 3 hours. I also did NOT use real maple syrup like the recipe calls for.

Here's the brine ready to go, featuring fresh dill from my herb garden, brown sugar, garlic, and (of course) kosher salt.

The fish after brining. I don't know what 8 hours of brining would have done to this filet, because it had already started to cook a little.

Here it is, in a not-so-good picture on the plate.

We also had parmesan-crusted potato wedges and steamed broccoli with parmesan cheese. The fish turned out much better than the picture! I didn't think it needed any more time in the brine - maybe a more firm filet (tuna or salmon?) would require that extra time. This was very different, and we both enjoyed this recipe. I think we'll be trying it with other types of fish as well. Oh, and I got real maple syrup today, so we'll see if that really makes a difference :)

Seriously.

I have been cooking...really. It's just that once I get it all over with, get the kitchen cleaned up, and do whatever else I need to do, blogging has lost it's appeal. Here's a look at what's been cooking at the Wolfe House:

I thought this was salmon, but according to the guy at Winn-Dixie, it's actually steelhead trout. It cooked up and tasted like salmon, but the texture was a little different...more flaky? It was a nice change. I wish I could find a REAL fish market that features more than tilapia and salmon. One more thing I miss about Gainesville!

Chocolate covered strawberry for dessert. Local strawberries are on the market right now, and I've gotta say they aren't as good as I was expecting. Maybe it's just the apples are so good I can't think of anything else. Have you ever had a Honeycrisp apple? As of today, I have, and HOLY COW.

Pizza on the Big Green Egg. Nothing special, but very tasty.

I came home from class on Friday night and this meatloaf was waiting for me. It was really good! AND I didn't have to make it!

By the way, I hope you all like my new look. I never actually said anything about it, but Mike put together the banner for me, and I think he did a bang-up job!

Dinner Pictures

After Christmas I cooked down the carcass from the turkey and got two gallon freezer bags full of stock. This week I pulled out one of them and made a turkey soup with carrots, celery, sweet Florida onions from the farmer's market, and basmanti rice.


I had never tried basmanti rice in soup before, but I liked it better than regular ole rice. I'd really prefer pasta, but Mr. Picky won't have any of that!


Next up, another Big Green Egg adventure: shrimp! I marinated them for a few hours in beer, canola oil, lime juice, minced garlic and Trinidad Lemon-Garlic Marinade from Penzey's Spices.

Here they are plated up, along with some beer bread with cheddar cheese, and a green salad made with veggies from the Farmer's Market, along with a Roasted Garlic-Parmesan dressing I made that turned out very tasty. I get tired of the bottled stuff from the store!

Christmas Food!!



Mike did the Christmas turkey for my mom on his Big Green Egg. It was a 20-pound turkey, and the instruction booklet says the Egg holds UP TO a 20-pound turkey, so he was a little concerned about fitting it on there, but he needn't have worried. He made a brine out of water, kosher salt, soy sauce, brown sugar, allspice, pepper, and garlic, then let the turkey sit in that for 36 hours.

Mike puts the finishing touches on the bird, right before letting it sit on the Egg for about 3 hours.


Isn't it beautiful?!? Mike cooked the bird on Christmas Eve, but had to leave right before it was done for band practice. He nonchalantly told me to "take it off in about 20 minutes," which is a lot more complicated than it sounds!! What he really meant is that he wanted me to lift a flaming hot broiler pan off a 375-degree smoker, which is full of boiling, popping water and grease, and oh yeah just happens to have a 20-pound turkey on it. No problem, hon! Luckily, my uncle was over for Christmas Eve dinner, and he was more than happy to help out. I wish I had gotten a picture of him almost burning his eyebrows off (he didn't realize you have to "burp" the Egg before you open it all the way)! We got it in the kitchen, despite the dog trying her best to trip my uncle, and wrapped it in foil until the next day:


Do they look like brothers? Not really, but then again they're only related by marriage. My brother and Mike expertly carve the turkey at my mom's house.

The bounty. Beautiful. And delicous!!

Mike followed Smokin Okie's Brining 101 instructions, which can be found at cookshack.com.

Post-Christmas Roughage

I'm still waiting on Christmas food pictures, but we've been eating well since then. I always crave lighter, strong-tasting foods after a big holiday.

Here's Mike with a post-Christmas sale find: a chili-pepper light swag! I don't know what it has to do with Christmas, but it was still half off at Wal-Mart! He's also sporting his new apron: Too Hot to Handle!!!

Grilled Salmon with a spicy glaze that caramelized wonderfully on the Egg. With roasted red potatoes and steamed green beans.

Morgan approved of the fish!!

From tonight's dinner: I tried a new technique with the bread, based off a recipe I found in Taste of Home - I let the dough mix in the bread machine, rolled the dough into about 20 balls, and dipped each ball in a mixture of butter and minced garlic. Then they all went into a bread pan and onto the Egg for cooking! We haven't done much bread on the Big Green Egg, so this was a learning experience. I don't think using a half whole-wheat dough works too well with this recipe! It was good, but not as light as I'd like it to be.

This stuff redeemed the bread: roasted garlic! Mike lopped off the top of two head of garlic and wrapped them in double thickness aluminum foil with some olive oil, then threw it on the Egg for about 30 minutes. It went on the bread, and also on top of the sirloin steak, as you can see below:

Mike says he wishes he had marinated the sirloin, and I tend to agree. Still tasty, though, especially with all that glorious garlic!!

Today we went to downtown Mount Dora and had lunch at The Frosty Mug, and Icelandic Pub. It was so cool! What a unique place.

Not food-related, but the wood floors were so beautiful I couldn't resist taking a picture!

And that was the lunch portion!! Me with my fish and chips. The haddock is imported from Iceland! I have now decided that I want to go to Iceland.


Onto tonight's dinner. Mike has been enjoying experimenting with his Big Green Egg, as you probably can tell from all the recent postings. Tonight he did a Cornish Game Hen.
Fresh off the Egg. My mom got Mike the Ceramic "Chick'n Sitter" for his birthday - you fill it up with beer and whatever else you want (onion in this case) and unceremoniously shove it the the bird's butt. Nice.


All plated up with brown rice and roasted green beans. The meat was tender and flavorful, but my favorite part of the meal was this:
Beer Bread from the Egg, with Garlic and Chipolte Cheddar Cheese from Sargento. This was sooooooooooooo goooooood! I highly recommend that you try the Chipolte Cheddar, by the way. It's great on everything!

Dinner Photos


Honey-Chicken Stir Fry from Quick Cooking. This recipe is going into my stir-fry rotation, to be switched off with my black bean and garlic stir-fry sauce that I get from ImportFood.com.


Grilled Salmon from the Big Green Egg, with roasted potatoes (also on the Egg), and steamed green beans and corn, topped with Parmesan cheese. The salmon was drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset. The potatoes cooked a little faster than Mike expected, so they were singed on one side, but the fish was peeeeerfect...


Another dinner from the Egg: hamburgers, tator tots , and steamed broccoli.

Food Pictures

First up, the Key Lime pie I made for Mike's birthday. Plain ole' pie, plain ole' Nila Wafer Crust...Mike and I have been together long enough for me to know that he always picks a very simple dessert for his birthday. I always offer to make him something elaborate - truffles, a torte - nope. Pie. But it was good.


Next, a new muffin recipe: Apple-Oat Muffins. These were really good and very satisfying! The recipe calls for two cups of shredded apple, but I can think of many things I'd rather be doing than standing there with my cheese grater and an apple, so I pulsed chopped apple in my food processor a few times and it worked fine. I also used strawberry yogurt instead of plain like the recipe calls for - I usually do this for my recipes because I don't keep plain yogurt around and don't want to wait for my next shopping trip. Give this recipe a try! I'm going to freeze a few and see how they keep.


Next up, tonight's dinner: Pizza on the Big Green Egg!

Let me tell ya: I thought I knew what pizza was. I have never had a pizza until tonight. I could eat this for the rest of my life. This was SO good! Did I mention I really liked this pizza? I did? Well...I LOVED this pizza!

The Big Green Egg Pulls Through Again...

Beef baby back ribs, broccoli and corn tossed in olive oil and Penzey's Tuscan Sunset (both done on the Egg), along with french fries. Mike says he's still getting used to cooking on his new toy and the rib were a little overdone. I say they were really good!

Sophie on high alert, hoping Daddy will share the wealth!

Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies

On Friday I tried this recipe from Taste of Home and brought them into the family business so the guys could test them out. I used a one of my new finds from Wal-Mart: Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder. That stuff is the best! It's also great with my mom's famous Microwave Brownie Recipe.

The Whoope Pie recipe calls for buttermilk, which I divide into 1/2 cup baggies and freeze so I always have some on hand. The cookies came out perfect for sandwich-making - firm and flat.

As I was making the icing, I realized that this recipe on the whole is very similar to my Moist Chocolate Cake recipe, which I was very happy about, since I've always had trouble with that cake cracking.

I think the guys at work were more than happy to be the guinea pigs this time :)

Mike's New Toy...

It's a Big Green Egg!!!

When Mike's parents came for Thanksgiving, they brought this as a surprise for Mike. It's his housewarming/birthday/Christmas/New Year/Valentine's Day/Anniversary gift, as my father-in-law is fond of saying. He's had one for a few years, and LOVES it, so I always figured he'd want Mike to have one once we had a house. This is the maiden voyage:

Setting it up

The bounty: ribs, chicken wings, baked potatoes, and corn.

In case you don't know what a Big Green Egg is, it's a ceramic cooker that is used to smoke food, but can also do a lot more. It's a grill, a smoker, and oven that can cook just about any food better than other methods. Check out the website; it's pretty cool. Apparently the Big Green Egg has a small niche, but it is made up of very loyal fans. We've been loving ours so far. Last night we tried a recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken, which was very good. We want to try it using some flavored wood chips for smoking. Stay tuned for more Big Green Egg fun!

One Week Ago Today...

My house was full of people, and I was running around trying to pull off hosting my first Thanksgiving. I'm really pleased with how well it went. My in-laws smoked the turkey and they also brought a ham, potatoes, and stuffing. I was especially relieved to not have to cook the turkey myself! One of the hardest parts was allocating oven space. My mother, grandmother, and great-aunt helped with the rest of the food, and everyone seemed to be satisfied. Even my great-uncle found nothing to complain about! (just kidding, Uncle Jerry!) Now onto pictures and recipes of the food!

The Thanksgiving table

Dig In!!



My sister-in-law Kathleen stayed with us a few days and helped me get the house ready. We also made a Chocolate Mousse Pie together, which was very tasty. I was glad to pass on some of my cooking knowledge to my young padawan!



The luscious result.



Black Bottom Cupcakes, a family recipe.

Apple Streusel; a new recipe from Penzey's Spices! It wasn't the prettiest dish to grace my table, but it cooked while we were eating dinner and tasted great warm!

My mom made pumpkin cheesecakes. We almost never have pumpkin pie in favor of another, more unique pumpkin recipe. We've also had a delicious pumpkin dip in years past.

My dad and uncle, post-gorgefest

Edited 11/30: I thought you all might like my mashed potato casserole recipe. It's been in the family for years, and was one of my grandfather's favorite things to eat. I hear he was a very picky man, so that's saying a lot!